Letters to the Editor - Oct. 25, 2013

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WorkingforaLiving

Wendy:

Excellent letter and so true. I find that many people truly don't understand what the Tea Party even stands for. They simply hear the negativity spewed by the mainstream media and go with that. I just had a conversation with a friend last week trying to briefly explain what they stand for as best I could and I think I may have gotten through.

Mr. Fuller suggested last week that we turn off the 'faux' news, etc. We don't have to eat and drink the news but I think people have turned their backs on what's been going on for so long that they just don't pay attention. There's always been corruption in politics but never in my lifetime like it is now. These last two elections are perfect examples of people just not paying attention. Now we are stuck with the mess and the massive debt that we'll most likely never be able to repay.

Something has got to give. We have to defend the country we were raised in not only for ourselves but our children. I hope your letter gets through and helps people understand what's going on.

06:33 pm - Thu, October 24 2013

David Bates

If you really want to trace today’s Tea Party all the way back to the original Boston Tea Party, one would do well to remember that it targeted private property that was in possession of a corporation (the East India Company) engaged in lawful economic activity. The closest modern-day analogy I can think of is not the Tea Party, nor even Occupy Wall Street. It’s a bit more like the so-called “black bloc” activity we saw in Seattle, 1999, which targeted property owned by Starbucks, Old Navy and The Gap. It should be said that these activists comprised an infinitesimal minority of those participating during Seattle and OWS.

This is something activists of all political ideologies do: trace their “origin” back to the Founding Fathers, a complex group of individuals that has been mythologized into caricature. If one could somehow transport some of those folks into the 21st century, it is likely they would be drawn to elements in the Tea Party and Occupy, just as they would also be appalled by other qualities of both groups.